It is also a good idea to visit the websites of all the branded phones available on the market.

Discover Your App

You will notice on these sites that there is a tab for users to comment. If you click on the tab it will take you to another page where you will find visitor’s comments and even complaints. You can even view posts that are archived.

There are lots of ideas on new designs, software and apps for phones to be found. Just spend some time going through them. Another avenue to get ideas is through social gatherings. When you are out with friends and associates, talk to them about their phones. Anyone who has bought a new phone will be more than willing to share the great features of their new phone. They also like to compare the features of different brands.

They will tell you what new feature or apps their new phone has. They will also tell you what is good about the app, what is lacking in the app and what is not good about the app. All this info is great to have as it will give you insight into what is good, what is missing and what to avoid when designing an app for the mobile market.

Perform a thorough competitive Market Research

For any type of business, a thorough market research is needed to tell you if the intended project venture is good or not. There are many sites that you can obtain market info and on many subjects. One such site is mobile phone development.com. It has great amounts of market research just on mobile phones and their apps. The research posted on this site is mostly done by big corporations which mean that the data found on this site is valid and accurate.

Social Forums

Many ideas on phones and apps as well as complaints about them are found in social forums that target mobile users and developers. The complaints and comments from users are great in terms of feedback as it will tell you what not to do with your app, what not to buy, what brand is good and so on. Users and developers will also tell you what you should avoid when creating your app due to design complexity and programming tool restrictions.

Most of these targeted social forums are free and you only need to register to participate in them. Another avenue to get ideas is through focus group gatherings. These groups should be represented by age, gender, profession and other denominations. The analysis and results from these focus group gatherings will clearly show where your intended target group market lies.

Will also show what type of app is popular, which brand of phone is the best with current models, how big is your intended market and what price level is acceptable. These focus groups will also tell you what is good about the app, what is lacking in the app and what is not good about the app. You will now have insight into what is good, what is missing and what to avoid when designing an app for the mobile market.

Be different from your competitor’s App

When you have performed a thorough market research, it will tell you what the market wants, what is available on the market and what you should do to penetrate the market?

Be a leader not a follower

You have to adopt the Japanese mentality of how to penetrate the intended market. Take for instance, when the Japanese wanted to sell cars, they bought cars from Europe and the US and studied the cars. From the analysis, they concluded that they can make cars cheaper with the same accessories and features.

They started manufacturing their own cars and marketed them worldwide. This is how Toyota, Honda and other Japanese brands emerged. The defining factor for the Japanese was that they could give the same thing at a lesser price. The same can be said for any other product. If you sell any product that is similar to others in the market but is cheaper, you will penetrate the market and gain market share.

Conversely, if you sell any product that has more user-demand features than your competitors, you will penetrate the market and gain market share. A great example of this is iPad. When it was launched, it was the first of its kind. It captured the whole tablet market until competitors caught up with cheaper models.

Even now iPad maintains a large share in the tablet market, together with Samsung and Blackberry. The same scenario goes for iPod. If price is constant, product differentiation becomes paramount in market acceptance. It is the logical choice for most people that when asked to choose between two cars of the same brand and model but one has more features, 100% of them will pick the one with more features.

Hiring Programmers with extensive experience

Once you have confirmed the design and functionality of your mobile app but are not qualified to program it, you need to find programmers with extensive experience to create the features that you want for the mobile market.

Seek help when it’s needed

If your app is targeted for the Android market then the place to look for these programmers is globalemployees.com where they are a one stop center for outsourcing needs. They will handle all administrative functions in selecting experienced programmers that are tailored to your needs. They will:

• Find competent resources
• Manage infrastructure layout
• Check availability of software and hardware
• Labor & Employment Laws
• Holidays
• Appraisals

When hiring Android developers, you must ensure that they have the necessary skills to build really rich multimedia flash applications. They must have:

• Sound Knowledge of Android OS
• Experience in mobile & tab device applications
• The ability to conduct Android Testing
• Android Application Maintenance and Upgrade

India is a good source to get experienced programmers. The biggest advantage of hiring Android developers from India is that you spend almost 50% less on the resource as part of their salary, compared to their offshore western counterparts. Android developers in India are very versatile and they can provide Android application development on any platform namely Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

These developers in India are quite proficient in the English language, making communication with them easy. It is hard to explain the concept of the project to most people and even harder when there is a language barrier. In India the IT infrastructure is quite advanced, enabling clients to interact with their offshore locations by using the following options:

• Email
• Instant Messaging
• Skype
• Video Conferencing

With the above methods of communication, going through the design life cycle of the app for enhancements with the programmer on a constant basis is easy.

Excerpted from the book Smartphone Apps Secrets.

This excerpt has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Download this book on Boostlane:

https://boostlane.com/p/boostlane/971/smartphone-apps-secrets/